eyes closed, and after getting shipped out i received a lot of letters from family and friends saying, wishing me luck because they thought it wasn't a very bright idea for me to take that opportunity to change my life. i proved them wrong, but when i got hurt -- during active duty that made them think for a minute they were right, but that roadblock didn't stop me and i saw that as another opportunity to learn. with the gi bill i am going to school and continue my career in the engineering field. i currently go to san francisco state as a computer engineering student and there i am able to learn more about my field, my

field of interest, and i think this will provide me with those opportunities that i was talking about, especially being in the bay area where it's like the it capital of the world, so what better place to be than san francisco; right? i didn't do this quick, fast, and in a hurry. i actually thought about this one, so after much research i saw this program, and sf state and the city as what ron would say "a match made in heaven" because computer engineering is what i call a hybrid between electrical engineering and computer science because it world has many different sectors and you want to be versatile.

you don't want to -- well, some of us would prefer to be experts in one field. for example programming or making robots, but i think being versed in both sides of the spectrum tells you tremendously understanding programming, electronics, signal processing, networking, chip design -- i could go on and on, and i think this will give us more opportunities in the area rather than being skilled in one thing. now i'm a senior and i am graduating in the spring, fingers crossed and i couldn't have made a better choice. i think computer engineering was

the best choice for me. like i said opportunities are not always readily available. we all get nervous about that. sometimes we need to take charge and take those opportunities so last summer i decided to take it a step further and i applied for probably about 200 different interning opportunities that i saw available on craigslist and on company websites, on government websites and i got lucky a few of them called back out of about -- maybe about 5% of them, but i put my faith into the hands of these companies. it was out of my hands once i click the "submit" button, but i was lucky to come across a nonprofit organization that put their faith in me, so now i

work as an it intern where people share the sum of all knowledge, where knowledge is free, wikipedia. that's their promotional line; right. so last week i asked my boss why he hired me when i got invited to be part of this program, so he said to me "well, there were a lot of other students. many from impressive private schools -- i wouldn't name them, but they were very, very impressive with proficiencies in programming c or engineering and there -- they were academically inclined but they chose little old me, and this is what he said to me. he said he hired me because i was the only one that said i was there to learn". i

had more questions for them than they had for me, so it was pretty much their interview, so as much as i work now i feel like i take away far more than i am able to contribute with the amount of knowledge that i gain everyday. i think that's a bonus. and in the it world our building blocks -- you all know this. our language is made up of two bits; right? a zero and a one. so off and on. we have to be a zero in order to be a one, so i see a life as binary because when we stop learning we stop living so always take the opportunity to learn. thank you. [applause] >> thank you julie. up next we

will have jose who is a student at bay cap. [applause] >> hi everyone. first of all thanks for having me. i'm actually used to be the guy behind the camera, not in front of it, so bear with me. mayor lee, distinguished guest of owad, sf city, sf partners it's a real honor to be here to speak to you today and my work experience and path. i was originally born in elvaldoor and my mom brought me here at ten. after graduating high school i wasn't sure what career path to take even though i really like media and technology i didn't know there was a career path for it. everybody kept on telling me you should be a doctor, a

lawyer because that's where the money is. the usual thing that parents say. it seemed to me you really have to be very lucky and hard working like a steven speilburg or end up video taping weddings which i have done and there is nothing wrong with. so in community college i finally decided to take a video production course which lead me to pursue a degree in broadcasting and i just dove in. my first semester at san francisco state i realized i would need some real world experience, and so i applied and was accepted into the internship at bay cat and i never left so i am still there. i learned so much there, not just the technical skills, but also soft skills needed to get hired in any work place. i love the work so much so i chose to stay on and i'm going to be a volunteer

just to be able to learn the advance production skills and help the next generation of interns, so after graduating from college at sf state they offered me a job. they were employed me and have a real career in media and technology and actually make a living doing what i love. three years later i have been able to accomplish a lot more and continue to produce great videos, improve my skills, i continue to improve my skills but more importantly i am able to mentor the next set of interns and providing the support and training i received and i am able to give back in a way that feels good, and i think ultimately now i'm able to hire them for studio media work, so a typical day for me -- i'm the production manager at bay cat

is going to pacific heights and for filming and award video and then back to the office, work with a program team to assign the next sf tech internship and mentoring bernie king who is here in the audience with us. he's one of the graduate interns and mentor him in his production company start up. all the cities and the program's investment in tech sf for continuing to provide pathways for people like me for us and show us connections between our passion for media and technology and turn that passion not just into a job but a career so thank you very much. [applause] >> and rhonda simmons director of the office of workforce development position and then we

will following this we will close. [applause] >> wow it's been a long time coming for this. so started about two years ago with the grant process and i want to thank again mayor lee for the support and submitting the proposal. like he said we have roughly $8 million to do this over the four year period of time. you can seat students before us. the goal is placement ultimately and make sure they're placed in the field of technology. if you have been in this cycle and you have done work for us you know it's all based on the labor market and we're in a boone in this town and one of the reasons we were able to secure the grant is san francisco and the technology companies really buying into this as mayor lee said and we teed up the right partnership and this is one of the sector

strategies under mayor lee. we have construction and health care and we started hospitality and whatever else he says i need to do, so this is one of many to ensure that san franciscans across the board are employed in all of the industries that we have in this state city. with that i would like to city a little more about the labor market and how we set up this training. it's all driven by the labor market. we pay close attention to what the employers need. we try to flex in what they want with training and skills as andrew mentioned and ron mentioned. it's all based on what the employers need in terms of skills so we hope we put something together that is adaptable and flexible for the market and much of the employment is driven around the technology center so we want to adapt and make sure our clients

are employed. we focused on mobile apaps. i am considered an elder in the technology field. most of the folks coming into this are much more creative. the whole innovation model that supports mayor lee's efforts. it's being able to adapt to the change of technology. all of our supporters and know this and between the mobile apapps industry and you will hear more from james jones and talk about communication technology and everybody in the room has a hand held computer and think about ten years ago we didn't have that so the change in technology is important. you can see what we're focused on in the 35 growing occupations in san francisco. all of that is incorporated into our curriculum and make it adaptable. the

partnership with sf tech and city college is there and you heard about jaun going back to school and we are emphasizing placement we want all the folks have the tools that they need including degrees and the advanced credentials to be successful in this industry. tech sf we're trying to align with the industry trends as you see on the board. the young lady talked about computer engineer. there is system analysis. there is graphic design which is a rich industry in this city as it relates to technology, so our goal is to make sure when you grate from tech sf, whatever door you come in you have everything that you need to be successful, an internship, a placement, whatever your goals are to get back into school. that's our commitment to you. i know you heard strong commitment with

mayor lee and sf city and ron and i want to say it's taken a long time to get here but we're here and go giants. yeah i think we're going to wrap up so there can be q and a while we still have some of the mayor's valuable time and i want to thank everybody for coming and thank everybody that participated in putting this on. >> that concludes our program. thank you so much

>> my name is byron webb. i'm a development director with the port and i want to welcome to heron park. it was built in the wetlands in the bay view community adjacent to the indian basin. it is approximately 22-acres and we are here to celebrate the expansion of the wetlands and also the creation of the first bidirectional bike way in the city and in this neighborhood. with that brief introduction -- the reason that we're here i wanted to introduce the mayor and have him speak to these two important projects for this bay view community.

[applause] >> thank you brian. i know when you worked on redevelopment you have seen things and especially in the southeast sector and this is a great meet up with you and thank you very much. good morning everybody. so it's still team work. yes. and i'm still kind of dazed from all of the celebrations from yesterday, but i am still willing to go ahead and say go giants yet again, but i have to tell you with a story of how even the players i think with all the news broadcasts i think they were genuinely happy, and especially when i saw angel pag

an and after tony bennett sang and i need a picture. this is the most important picture in my life with tony bennett. he didn't want the picture with the world series trophy but with his family and tony ben etd. he was having fun. i think that was the level of fun the players were having with the event yesterday and i want to thank the rest of the city and everybody gets to enjoy these moments when they're unique, but we're going to carry that on. today there is work to be done and announcements to be made and the southeast sector of our city is something i always registered to the city as your mayor we would never abandon and in fact we're making more investments in this neighborhood and heron's head park is the latest investment. it comes out of a two and a half million dollar investment out of a safety bond that we passed years ago and

rec and park are almost there with 90% of the expenditures. all of the projects are accounted for and 2.5 million dollars of investment here and corrects access and updates landscaping and opens this place up even for more use and perhaps unlike many of our urban settings i think heron's head park offers probably a unique experience in that apart from many of the trucks that are next door it is relatively a pretty quiet place. you're going to be able to have not only hiking and walking and familyand we have the quarter

mile extension of a gap that was not filled in for bicycle use. that will bring yet additional numbers of people here in a great way and then it sits next door to something that i worked with on for a number of years and that is of course the literacy for environmental justice center, the ego center that we have here that brings a lot of youth into training and education about our waterfront, about the environment, about the balance of nature, and in the urban setting and of course it not have happened on the theme i will talk about the rest of my administration which is the team work that has to happen. we have rec and part that administers the bond. we have the port with its staff and

byron and susan reynolds and working with public works to open up this area with the private sector whether it's ledge or the park advocates or the green space or the blue green advocates and this is all connected when i was taught during my dpb days and we had people walk along the water way and experience the wonderful, wonderful initial resources that we had, so all of these investments. >> >> will bring a lot of great use of open space to this area and not to forget we have a little off lease dog run that is also added in here for our dog lovers which there are countless many in the city and having an area where the dogs can play with their guardians and having a

natural place for this to happen. you see all of the elements happening here and i want to thank the team and the agencies working together and with community and ledge and the department of the environment is here as well (railroad noise). >> yes and all positive activities. the railway station is historic and it will remain that way, so again welcome to heron's head park. by the way for those of you who don't know why it's named this way is because if you ever have a chance to get above this area and see it literally is shaped like a heron's head and this is part of the honoring of our waterfront area. it's a great investment and of course it will lead me to say with the

responsible, and this year is our proposition b which extends another great investment of $195 million to many other areas including the south east sector of open space that we got to take care of, and modernize. this is what rec and park does very well with dpw with all of the capital leadership in the city that i got to work on with the city administrator. we need to take care of the infrastructure in many ways and we are loving our parks and why we want this great investment to continue and this is another small yet important addition. we will have $35 million more of that with the connection with the port and the next bond so it serves as a great example how

we use the park bonds to of benefit of all of our users and residents and especially because we want our southeast sector to continue evolving in a positive way for everybody. it has been a trial for many of the residents here for many years because of the leadership of the different agencies working together with environmental advocates to make sure we strike that right balance we can have the spaces used for the different use and it is enjoyment of the environment at the same time for the residents. thank you for being here with this announcement. we get four things out of this. a dog run, heron's head park with the landscape and wonderful access to it. we have the literacy for justice modernization here and of course we have the

bi- directional lines for the bicycles and thanks for being here and congratulations to everybody. it has been a great part of this collaboration. this great team work and go giants and now go warriors. [applause] >> thank you mayor lee for your leadership for this development. i want to introduce also monique moyer director of the port. who she began -- became director of the port she noticed how much energy and funds were being focused on the northern waterfront and requested whether or not we could do more in the southern waterfront and i think these projects are an example of how we responded to that challenge, so monique moyer executive

director. [applause] >> good morning and thank you. it is wonderful to see so many of our friends and supporters and hard workers here today. how many of you are here at heron's head for the first time? a show of hands. not many. that is terrific news. well welcome back. this is one of the greatest places in the city i am fond of saying. it's visionary. you heard about that from the mayor already and part of it is san francisco moving forward in a way that other cities just don't do. first and foremost other cities do not pass general obligation bonds of this type for a park and none for waterfront parks so we are already ahead of game that way, and we are proud of the generosity of the electoral for supporting that vision. secondly we don't have many parks and in san fraco